Advocate Still Coaxes Dupage On

Hope Chief Looks Back Over 25 Years

To some, he ranks as one of DuPage County's greatest natural resources, a tireless promoter of justice for all. But not everyone likes Bernard Kleina.

In fact, in some circles he's one of the most unpopular people in the county.

"I don't lose too much sleep over that, though," Kleina said.

Threatening phone calls, nasty unsigned letters, even six shots fired through the window of his storefront office some years back-the 59-year-old former priest turned fair-housing advocate takes it all in stride.

"Landlords and lenders who discriminate don't like me," said Kleina, who on Sunday celebrates his 25th anniversary as executive director of the nonprofit HOPE Fair Housing Center in Wheaton. "People who segregate and intimidate don't like me. But I make no apologies for HOPE's tough stance against those people."

For a quarter-century, Kleina has been on the front lines of the fight for fair housing in DuPage, doing daily battle with illegal discrimination on a variety of fronts as a county widely perceived to be affluent and racially homogenous struggles increasingly with issues of integration and affordable housing.

"Bernie has made a remarkable contribution to civil rights in his career; he's one of the best-known experts in the U.S. on fair housing issues," said Paul F. Hancock, chief of the Housing Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. "It's too bad we don't have more people like him."

John Day, executive director of the DuPage Housing Authority, agreed. "Bernie's one of DuPage County's great natural resources and a gentle, caring person," observed Day, who will attend an anniversary dinner for Kleina held by HOPE staffers. "Whenever we suspect a landlord might be discriminating against a potential tenant, we refer the tenant to HOPE."

In the last three years, HOPE has responded to 655 complaints of housing, lending and home insurance discrimination based on race, national origin or family status. Meanwhile, Kleina, who is also a professional photographer, has produced dozens of videos and multimedia presentations on civil rights and affordable housing that have been seen throughout the U.S.; his "The Chicago Experience," shown regularly at Sears Tower, is viewed by 1.6 million people every year.

In contrast to his tough, often litigious stance as head of HOPE, Kleina's cinematic strategy involves tugging at heartstrings via unscripted interviews with discrimination's victims.

"We do the videos to reach people (emotionally)" explained Kleina, whose income from HOPE multimedia projects helps fund the center's $300,000 annual budget. "We want to put a face on the issues."

For Kleina, the seeds of passion for social justice were sown more than 30 years ago in Selma, Ala., where he participated in civil rights marches.

"I went to Selma almost as a fluke," recalled Kleina, who was a Catholic priest with the Joliet Diocese at the time. "I had seen things on TV about what was going on in the South and decided to go, but I was fairly ignorant about civil rights issues.

"After Selma, though, I couldn't look the other way (on social issues). I had to get involved."

Back in the Chicago area, Kleina threw himself into the civil rights struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1968, he left the priesthood and later married; he and his wife, Susan, live in Wheaton.

"I had come to realize that there were a lot of things I should be doing that proved difficult to do as a priest," Kleina said. "I was disturbed that the government was using our resources for war instead of for bringing about racial and social justice in our own county. So there was a very natural progression from those '60s issues to what I am doing today with HOPE."

As Kleina sees it, things have "gotten better in many ways and gotten worse in others" with respect to housing discrimination in DuPage since he joined HOPE.

"Through lawsuits, we have changed things at a number of apartment complexes and real estate offices," Kleina said. "But I think that things have taken a turn for the worse in the last couple of years.

"On the local level, discrimination on the part of individuals has become more subtle; it occurs with a smile and a handshake instead of a derogatory remark," Kleina said. "Sometimes minority families or single mothers with children or people with disabilities don't realize that they have been discriminated against when they were turned down for housing or a loan, because they were treated very nicely."

Kleina blames politicians at national and local levels for fostering what he calls "an atmosphere that sends signals that it is all right to exclude anyone who is different."

"County and municipal officials have an obligation to support fair housing, but they fight the issue all the way," Kleina charged.